Best Waiter/Waitress Resume with Examples [Resume Writing Guideline]

Waiter/Waitress is one of the most popular job options among students and job seekers of all ages. A waiter/waitress resume must demonstrate one's skill clearly to pave the way for a job interview. In this article, we will share with you all you need to know when crafting a resume for a waiter/waitress position.

Step 1: Craft a Professional and Eye-catching Resume Headline

The headline on a waiter or waitress's resume can greatly impact their job application results, as it represents their professional and personal brand.

Here are a few tips to write a professional resume headline:

• Sum up your achievement in one sentence can be a great resume headline option.
• Add descriptive word about your personality and attitude to work if you don't have any work experience.
• Refer to the job description and tailor your resume headline is also a great way to catch the recruiter's attention

Step 2: Innovate the Candidate's Professional Summary

If you cannot sum up your resume within a resume headline section, consider a resume summary instead. Adding adjectives that match with a job description can beef up the chances of getting an interview invitation. Additionally, you can use fragmented sentences in the resume summary section as long as it's coherent.

You can have a look at these simple resume summary examples:

Step 3: Add Waiter/Waitress Must-Have-Skills

A waiter resume skill list sums up the candidate’s professional skill set and knowledge. 

Consider adding waiter/waitress must have skills onto your resume whether you have experience or not. Remember to stay on topic. Showing flamboyant personalities through various interests is good, but employees would want to know more about your professional skillset than your traveling interest, unless the traveling experience is related to the food-dining service.

If you have no F&B industry experience, it's recommended to draw attention to other sections like education, studies, projects (even a foodie-Instagram account page might work), intern, and more.

Here are a list of skillsets a waiter/waitress must have:

Make sure to read through the job description carefully and customize your waiter/waitress resume accordingly. Use the right keywords mentioned in the job listing is a great ideas to pass the resume checker (if a business uses one), or catch the recruiter's attention. 

Follow the resume layout and formatting rule for the best reading experience.

Ensuring that there are no mistakes on your resume. No typo or grammar mistake should be found. At the same time, you should always look to enhance the quality of the content for waiter or waitress resumes. Make sure all sentences are concise and straight to the point, no one wants to read a 10 sentences paragraph about how you work for McDonalds, opt for bullet points instead.

There are three most common resume formats that you can consider: chronological, functional, and hybrids. Here are the sum-up of each:

When creating a resume for a waiter/waitress, using a well-structured template is important. Despite seeming challenging initially, crafting such a template can be made easy with these resume builders.

📌 Option 1: Microsoft Word / Mac Pages

If you choose the traditional way — Microsoft Word or Mac Pages to create your resume, here are some advice:

• Look for free resume templates available online and use its format.
• Include important sections like: contact information, expertise and skills, employment history.
• Simple resume layout and design is always the top choice. Too complicated resume's design might prevent you from passing the ATS-checker.
• Avoid writing long paragraphs in your resume
• Aim for short and concise languages.
• Choose international and professional font like Arial, Helvetica, Cambria, Georgia, Calibri.
• Opt for 12-14 px font sizes.

📌 Option 2: Online Resume Builder

If you want to eliminate all troublesome related to the resume format, layout, and design, we recommend you to use resume building tool like CakeResume. We provide an easy-to-use tool for create a professional-looking resume. 

You can drag and drop any elements into the live editor screen, customize your resumes and portfolio layout, and add or remove any sections as needed. You can also upload images or other multimedia content. Additionally, our online resume-building platform offers various pre-built templates and design themes as well.

✔️ Dos:

1. Include only relatable information to one's waiter resume (focus on the industry and necessary skills for the role) 
2. Provide data-oriented results in employment history or the waiter/waitress professional summary. Quantifiable accomplishment is the key (ex, daily customer count, satisfaction rating, etc). 
3. Use only the ATS-friendly waiter/waitress resume template. 
4. Use Active Verbs to show initiative, effort, and determination. 
5. Tailor the waiter/waitress resume to a specific job by adding keywords.

❌ Don'ts

1. Mix up a waiter's resume with a waiter's CV (reminder: the latter is also different from a waiter's cover letter). While the former is used in a job application setting, the latter (waiter CV) is applicable mostly in academia and educational purposes. 
2. Adopting outdated waiter resume objectives shows the candidate's incompetence in a fast-paced environment and current industry.
3. Disclose personal details that may opt for discrimination (might cause personal harm). 
4. Disclosing former employers' information or data may cause legal troubles and damage personal trustworthiness. 
5. Sending the waiter's resume in Word format shows a candidate as unprofessional (the assumption in all-industry)